Sill with integral bumper support

ABSTRACT

A sill with integral bumper support. The sill consists of an elongated body having an exterior face and an interior face. The interior face is adapted to overlay a sill portion of a cooler display case. A bumper retaining profile is integrally formed with and extends outwardly from the exterior face of the body.

FIELD

The present application relates to a sill with an integral bumpersupport, specifically, a sill of a cooler display case.

BACKGROUND

Cooler display cases are commonly used to display food that needs to bemaintained at a lower temperature, such as meats and dairy products.Sills are positioned along an upper front edge of the display cases. Toprotect sills from damage caused by impacts with shopping carts, bumperretainers are secured by fasteners to either the sills or the tankpanels. Shock absorbing bumpers are then retained by the bumperretainers.

SUMMARY

There is provided a sill with integral bumper support. The sillcomprises an elongated body having an exterior face and an interiorface. The interior face is adapted to overlay a sill portion of a coolerdisplay case. A bumper retaining profile is integrally formed with andextends outwardly from the exterior face of the body.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

These and other features will become more apparent from the followingdescription in which reference is made to the appended drawings, thedrawings are for the purpose of illustration only and are not intendedto be in any way limiting, wherein:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of the sill with integral bumper support.

FIG. 2 is an end elevation view of the sill of FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view of the sill of FIG. 1 supporting a bumper.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

A sill with integral bumper support generally identified by referencenumeral 10, will now be described with reference to FIG. 1 through 3.

Structure and Relationship of Parts:

Referring to FIG. 3 sill with integral bumper support 10 includes amelongated body 12, preferably formed of molded plastic, having anexterior face 14 and an interior face 16. Interior face 16 is adapted tooverlay a sill portion of a cooler display case (not shown). As the sillportion may come in a variety of shapes and sizes, it will be understoodthat elongated body 12 may be adapted from the size and shape shownaccordingly. Referring to FIG. 2, a bumper retaining profile 18, isintegrally formed with, and extends outwardly from, exterior face 14 ofbody 12. Preferably, bumper retaining profile 18 includes an upperappendage 20 and a lower appendage 22. Both upper appendage 20 and lowerappendage 22 comprise a convex surface 24 and 26, respectively, directedaway from the other. It will be appreciated that upper appendage 20 andlower appendage 22 can be in alternative configurations, bumperretainers known in the prior art provide numerous examples ofalternative configurations. The present invention is not intended to belimited in any way to a particular configuration. Referring to FIG. 1,upper appendage 20 and lower appendage 22 engage an interior surface 28of a bumper 30.

Operation:

Referring to FIG. 2, interior face 16 body 12 is adapted to overlay asill portion of a cooler display case (not shown). Once securelyinstalled, bumper 30 is supported by bumper retaining profile 18, whichis integrally formed with exterior face 14. This is done by slidingbumper 30 over upper appendage 20 and lower appendage 22, such thatupper appendage 20 and lower appendage 22 engage interior surface 28 ofbumper 30.

Advantages:

By providing a retaining profile 18 that is integrally formed with body12, the installation of such a sill covering becomes faster, and lessexpensive. The need to install separate bumper retainers is avoided,resulting in a considerable saving in both materials and labour. Inaddition, alignment problems which may occur when connecting separatecomponents are completely avoided.

In this patent document, the word “comprising” is used in itsnon-limiting sense to mean that items following the word are included,but items not specifically mentioned are not excluded. A reference to anelement by the indefinite article “a” does not exclude the possibilitythat more than one of the element is present, unless the context clearlyrequires that there be one and only one of the elements.

It will be apparent to one skilled in the art that modifications may bemade to the illustrated embodiment without departing from the spirit andscope defined in the Claims.

1. A sill with integral bumper support, comprising: an elongated bodyhaving an exterior face and an interior face, the interior face beingadapted to overlay a sill portion of a cooler display case; a bumperretaining profile integrally formed with and extending outwardly fromthe exterior face of the body.
 2. The sill of claim 1, wherein thebumper retaining profile includes an upper appendage and a lowerappendage adapted to engage an interior surface of a bumper.
 3. The sillof claim 2, wherein each of the upper appendage and the lower appendagecomprising a convex surface for engaging an interior surface of abumper, the convex surface of each of the upper appendage and the lowerappendage being directed away from each other.
 4. The sill of claim 1,wherein the body is formed of molded plastic.